IDEA INTERCHANGE is an initiative by HERD in order to bring ideas together for positive change. Through this initiative, we bring forward and discuss ideas about pertinent issues and seek to gather thoughts, reflections and solutions to existing problems in order to draw a pathway towards improvement and positive change.

INTRODUCTION

In 2000, the world leaders and the governments of the United Nations (UN) Member States had adopted the Millennium Declaration and subsequently pursued 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) over the next 15 years. The development goal 1 was related to poverty and hunger and one of its target was to “Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day”. Last September (2015), the governments of 193 UN Member States assembled at the UN Headquarters, New York to celebrate social progresses the countries collectively made over the last 15 years. They realized and acknowledged that there were unfinished development agenda and therefore, adopted a new set of 17 development goals, known as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to be attained in the next 15 years.

The new development goal 1 is related to poverty that contains a target which reads, “By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day.” To eradicate extreme poverty completely from the world is hailed as the most important and ambitious goal among all 17 SDGs. Therefore, it is imperative that the governments, development partners and citizens of every single nation fully own the new SDGs and integrate them in their respective plans and programmes. In this regard, as Nepal aspires to graduate from the least developed country to a developing country by 2022 and subsequently to a middle income country by 2030, every single citizen of this country, most importantly the Nepalese youth who are our future, must internalize these global goals and contribute to the implementation of these goals at national level as well as in local communities.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this session is to impart knowledge on global poverty goal and its linkage to health and well-being to the young public health professionals currently associated with HERD, a dynamic national non-governmental organization, promoting evidence informed policies and practices for sustainable development in health, environment and social sectors to improve quality of life.